History YMMV / IronChef

* TearJerker: As of this edit, on 4 May 2023, a number of people from the original series have passed away, particularly Iron Chef Kobe (of a head injury), Kandagawa (of covid), challenger and judge Tatsuo Umemiya (of kidney failure), judge Asako Kishi (of heart failure), judge Kazuko Hosoki (unknown causes) and Iron Chef Chen (of pneumonia).

** especially on the Japanese original when their delicacies don't match up with American tastes.

*** Because animal rights and conservation are much more SeriousBusiness in the US, ''Series/IronChef America'' has strived to avert this by offering local ingredients as much as possible, and showcasing chefs known for farm-to-table and sustainable practices-especially when it comes to seafood. [[http://www.examiner.com/article/iron-chef-america-and-the-blue-fin-tuna Bluefin tuna was banned from Kitchen Stadium in 2008]], and famed sustainable seafood chef Joe Isidori once battled in Kitchen Stadium. Another Season 11 episode showcased Sea Whistle Salmon, farmed in the North Atlantic off of Scotland and Ireland.

** An in-universe example, on the original show everyone considered Iron Chef Morimoto very avant-garde, to the point where some accused him of straying too much from what was considered "Japanese cuisine" to deserve being Iron Chef Japanese. On Iron Chef America, he's seen as a ''traditionalist'' because [[SeinfeldIsUnfunny what was new over a decade ago isn't much anymore]]. Moreover, Americans tend not to notice the American influences on Morimoto's cuisine, and also tend not to care about the supposed purity of Japanese cuisine (which seriously upset Kandagawa and the Ohta Faction, but Americans, whose cuisine is hardly "pure" anything to begin with, tend to think mixing of culinary ideas is almost always a good thing).

* GatewaySeries: For both Cooking Shows, and [[WidgetSeries Weird Japanese Things]].

** An in-universe example, on the original show everyone considered Iron Chef Morimoto very avant-garde, to the point where some accused him of straying too much from what was considered "Japanese cuisine" to deserve being Iron Chef Japanese. On Iron Chef America, he's seen as a ''traditionalist'', both because [[SeinfeldIsUnfunny what was new over a decade ago isn't much anymore]]. Moreover, Americans tend not to notice the American influences on Morimoto's cuisine, and also tend not to care about the supposed purity of Japanese cuisine (which seriously upset Kandagawa and the Ohta Faction, but Americans, whose cuisine is hardly "pure" anything to begin with, tend to think mixing of culinary ideas is almost always a good thing).

** A bit of an in-universe example, but some of the Iron Chefs have monikers of their own: Sakai is known as "Fish Sakai" or the "Delacroix of French cuisine", Kobe's the "Prince of Pasta", and Chen is the "Szechuan Sage".

* HarsherInHindsight:
** Nakamura's happiness tying with Alain Passard comes off harsher in hindsight where after fighting him, Nakamura suffered a massive breakdown where he ended up getting feeling so pressured by being an Iron Chef he ended up making dishes that were slammed by the judges, including the infamous potato dish, eventually leading to his retirement.
** All the comments about Masahiko Kobe being the youngest chef becomes a lot harsher since Kobe was the first Iron Chef to die from an accident.

** Iron Chef Chen battling his mentor, Takashi Saito, in a Szechuan vs Szechuan prawn battle, with both of them serving a variation on Chen Kenmin's chili prawns.

* FirstInstallmentWins: While Iron Chef America is fairly popular, more people remember and like the original Iron Chef Japan because of how much of a historical trendsetter it was for the cooking genre.

* VindicatedByHistory: All three Iron Chef Japanese eventually shook off their BrokenBase status and became legends in their own right. Morimoto and Michiba were criticized while the show was airing for being too liberal while Koumei conversely was criticized as being too conservative as well as his tenure as Iron Chef Japanese II. Nowadays, Morimoto and Michiba's controversial liberal aspects are seen as groundbreaking, such as the usage of mayo in Japanese cooking, while Nakamura's conservative attitude and his fights are looked back with less criticism and more understanding that Nakamura was undergoing depression while being an Iron Chef, and despite his record he still is a chef that represents the famous Nandaban restaurant

** For a lot of non-Japanese--and even Japanese!--viewers of reruns and the like, the appearance as judges of then-Lower House Member Yukio Hatoyama and his wife in 1998's Shanghai Cabbage battle can be quite surprising, as Hatoyama ended up Prime Minister for a short but highly consequential time in 2009-10.
** Yoshiro Mori, who served as Prime Minister from 2000-01, also appeared on the show as a judge while he was still a Lower House member.

* RetroactiveRecognition: For a lot of non-Japanese--and even Japanese!--viewers of reruns and the like, the appearance as judges of then-Lower House Member Yukio Hatoyama and his wife in 1998's Shanghai Cabbage battle can be quite surprising, as Hatoyama ended up Prime Minister for a short but highly consequential time in 2009-10.

** For those [[NoExportForYou lucky bastards that got to see the two battles with Rory Kennedy]], this comes into play once you remember he died about a year after his battles. (In the procession of chefs in the final battle, he is represented by a portrait.)
** Kobe, the youngest of the Iron Chefs, was the first one to die (in 2019 from a head injury).
** Favored heel [[LoveToHate Toshiro Kandagawa]] has also died as of April 2021 due to complications from COVID. Watching him be moved to tears as he gets a medal for his clean sweep against Sakai can hit hard when you realize that this was his last appearance for more than one reason...

** Iron Chef also tackled mental health very seriously, as when it was revealed that Komei Nakamura was too stressed and tired to continue his role as Iron Chef Japanese II and how the position and the stress was the main cause of it, everyone who worked on the show came on to give Nakamura the help that he needed so that Nakamura could retire without feeling bad. It's especially noticeable, given the stressful society of Japan AND doubly so in a job business where chefs, especially during the 50s-90s in which most contestants and even the Iron Chefs came from, were also shown having to have a lot of mental health issues, leading to depression and suicide due to the very high competitiveness of the culinary world.

** Iron Chef also tackled mental health very seriously, as when it was revealed that Komei Nakamura was too stressed and tired to continue his role as Iron Chef II and how the position and the stress was the main cause of it, everyone who worked on the show came on to give Nakamura the help that he needed so that Nakamura could retire without feeling bad. It's especially noticeable, given the stressful society of Japan AND doubly so in a job business where chefs, especially during the 50s-90s in which most contestants and even the Iron Chefs came from, were also shown having to have a lot of mental health issues, leading to depression and suicide due to the very high competitiveness of the culinary world.

* TheWoobie: Komei Nakamura. In his tenure as Iron Chef Japanese II, he initially had a struggle trying to live up to Michiba's massive reputation as a maverick of Japanese food and a symbol of Japanese culinary liberalism while also being his own man. He did get his confidence, but after the duel between Alain Passard, Nakamura felt the struggle of being a champion, which led him to make common Japanese foods of foreign ingredients, such as Ostritch Katsu and Lamb Sushi, which the judges slammed him for. Him being also known as the guy "who made that one potato dish Chaiman Kaga really hated" didn't help his reputation, and fighting very tough opponents, from Robuchon's Japanese branch head chef and Toshiro Kandagawa also stressed him out, with the latter fight having Nakamura so stressed out that right after the gong rang, he said out loud,"If I lose, I will step down as Iron Chef". When Kandagawa beat him, even he shown up to his retirement to lend support for Komei.

* GermansLoveDavidHasslehoff: While the show is considered a classic game show in Japan, in the west, especially in America, it was so popular that the phenomenon of cooking game shows that spawned from its airing on Food Network was called the Iron Chef effect. Americans also liked the show so much that they made their own spinoff because they couldn't air the other episodes to fill in the ''Iron Chef'' demand.

* TheWoobie: Komei Nakamura. In his tenure as Iron Chef Japanese II, he initially had a struggle trying to live up to Michiba's massive reputation as a maverick of Japanese food and a symbol of Japanese culinary liberalism while also being his own man. He did get his confidence, but after the duel between Alain Passard, Nakamura felt the struggle of being a champion, which led him to make common Japanese foods of foreign ingredients, such as Ostritch Katsu and Lamb Sushi, which the judges slammed him for. Him being also known as the guy "who made that one potato dish Chaiman Kaga really hated" didn't help his reputation, and fighting very tough opponents, from Robuchon's Japanese branch head chef and Toshiro Kandagawa also stressed him out, with the latter fight and Nakamura saying "If I lose, I will step down as Iron Chef". When Kandagawa beat him, even he shown up to his retirement to lend support for Komei.

* FunnyAneurysmMoment:
** For those [[NoExportForYou lucky bastards that got to see the two battles with Rory Kennedy]], this comes into play once you remember he died about a year after his battles. (In the procession of chefs in the final battle, he is represented by a portrait.)
** Kobe, the youngest of the Iron Chefs, was the first one to die (in 2019 from a head injury).
** Favored heel [[LoveToHate Toshiro Kandagawa]] has also died as of April 2021 due to complications from COVID. Watching him be moved to tears as he gets a medal for his clean sweep against Sakai can hit hard when you realize that this was his last appearance for more than one reason...

* HarsherInHindsight: Nakamura's happiness tying with Alain Passard comes off harsher in hindsight where after fighting him, Nakamura suffered a massive breakdown where he ended up getting feeling so pressured by being an Iron Chef he ended up making dishes that were slammed by the judges, including the infamous potato dish, eventually leading to his retirement.

* ReplacementScrappy: In-Universe, Nakamura was initially seen as one, according to Chairman Kaga's commentary on his retirement episode, due to the fact that he had to deal with the massive legacy that Michiba had left behind, and he initially had a lot of confusion to his new role as an Iron chef, including at one point only having a 66% win-rate. However, as Nakamura gained confidence (According to Kaga, during a saury battle), Nakamura ended up [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap pulling himself out of the heap by learning how to make new dishes]].